System and method for mitigating memory requirements

Abstract

A receiver is provided, which is adapted to receive MPE-FEC frames and to correct erroneous sections within a received MPE-FEC frame by detecting unreliable sections and storing in an erasure list (“ESL”) table compressed data that includes the base address of each detected erroneous section, together with the respective section's size. The size of the ESL table may be fixed, or it may correlate, or dynamically change according to the actual number of detected erroneous sections. The data stored in the erasure list may then be forwarded to a decoder to correct erroneous sections. The erroneous sections may be detected by using CRC, and the decoder may be a Reed-Solomon decoder. If the application data table of the MPE-FEC is error-free (or full or errors), in which case the erasure structure list is empty (or full of errors), in which case the erasure structure list is empty (or full), this means that no FEC reception and error corrections are required, because there are no sections to correct in the first case and the decoder is incapable of correcting too many sections in the second case. Therefore, the receiving circuitry, or at least the decoder, may be disabled to save battery power.

1. A receiver adapted to receive multi-protocol encapsulation forward error correction frame type application data and encoded error correction data, and to correct erroneous sections in said application data, comprising:
 an erasure structure list table for storing therein data relating to unreliable sections within the multi-protocol encapsulation forward error correction frame; 
 a data processing unit; 
 wherein said data processing unit is adapted to: (i) accept an indication per erroneous section; and (ii) cause said data relating to the unreliable sections to be stored in said erasure structure list table based on said indication(s); and 
 wherein the data contained in the erasure structure list table is utilized for performing handovers. 
 
     
     
       2. The receiver of  claim 1 , wherein the data comprises, per erroneous section, the address of said section within the multi-protocol encapsulation forward error correction frame and the bit-wise length of said section. 
     
     
       3. The receiver of  claim 1 , wherein data relating to an unreliable section is stored in the erasure structure list table if the unreliable section contains at least one error. 
     
     
       4. The receiver of  claim 1 , wherein an error detection module provides the indication(s) for errors in erroneous section(s) by performing a cyclic redundancy check. 
     
     
       5. The receiver of  claim 1 , wherein the size of the erasure structure list table is fixed. 
     
     
       6. The receiver of  claim 1 , wherein the size of the erasure structure list table dynamically changes to accommodate for additional erroneous sections as they are detected. 
     
     
       7. The receiver of  claim 1 , wherein the receiver complies with the digital video broadcast handheld (“DVB-H”) standard. 
     
     
       8. The receiver of  claim 1 , wherein the receiver complies with the high-definition television (“HDTV”) standard. 
     
     
       9. The receiver of  claim 1 , wherein the receiver complies with the Enhanced Packet Mode DAB standard. 
     
     
       10. The receiver of  claim 1 , wherein the data contained in the erasure structure list table is utilized for diagnostics purposes in respect of the receiver's operation. 
     
     
       11. The receiver of  claim 1 , wherein data contained in the erasure structure list table is used in a feedback loop(s) for controlling the operation of said receiver. 
     
     
       12. The receiver of  claim 1 , wherein data contained in the erasure structure list table is used for monitoring impulsive interference(s). 
     
     
       13. The receiver of  claim 1 , wherein the erasure structure list table and the multi-protocol encapsulation forward error correction frame are stored in and used by a host. 
     
     
       14. The receiver of  claim 1 , wherein the receiver enters a sleep mode after receiving one multi-protocol encapsulation forward error correction frame. 
     
     
       15. The receiver of  claim 1 , wherein the receiver enters a sleep mode after receiving multiple multi-protocol encapsulation forward error correction frames. 
     
     
       16. The receiver of  claim 1 , wherein the receiver simultaneously receives and processes two or more frames belonging to different multi-protocol encapsulation forward error correction streams, and said receiver uniquely allocates an erasure structure list table to each of said stream. 
     
     
       17. The receiver of  claim 16 , wherein the different multi-protocol encapsulation forward error correction streams are associated with different types of data or information. 
     
     
       18. The receiver of  claim 16 , wherein the different multi-protocol encapsulation forward error correction streams are associated with the same type of data or information. 
     
     
       19. The receiver of  claim 1 , wherein said data processing unit causes a decoder to correct erroneous sections based on the data stored in the erasure structure list. 
     
     
       20. The receiver of  claim 19 , wherein said decoder is a Reed-Solomon decoder. 
     
     
       21. The receiver of  claim 19 , wherein counters are assigned to respective rows in a multi-protocol encapsulation forward error correction frame, each of which is incremented every time an erroneous section is found which overlaps the respective row. 
     
     
       22. The receiver of  claim 21 , wherein a row is corrected by the decoder if the entire multi-protocol encapsulation forward error correction frame has been checked and the respective counter has not reached a preset value. 
     
     
       23. The receiver of  claim 19 , wherein the data processing unit checks the erasure structure list table, per received multi-protocol encapsulation forward error correction frame, and disables receiving circuitry and the decoder if said erasure structure list complies with a specified criterion. 
     
     
       24. The receiver of  claim 23 , wherein the data processing unit enables said receiving circuitry and said decoder if, after reception of the entire application data table portion of the multi-protocol encapsulation forward error correction frame, the erasure structure list table does not comply with a predefined criterion. 
     
     
       25. The receiver of  claim 24 , wherein the specified criterion is the erasure structure list table being either empty or full.